Quick Tip: Adding Realism to Sampled Drums

Most of us aren't drummers. So, for fear of dealing with one—or the
expense of hiring one!—many of us turn to virtual instruments, such
as BFD, as a happy and cost effective alternative. Virtual instruments can
offer real drums recorded in real studios but it can be all too easy to get a stiff or wooden performance purely by "clicking" a beat into your DAW.

Here are four simple tricks to help you turn your MIDI programmed
drums into realistic sounding ones!

Here's the beat we’re going to look at. It's been programmed by
clicking into the computer - so no playing required!

1. Vary Velocities

After programming a beat, it's essential you change velocities to match
the feel of a drummer. Velocity changes are usually made inside your DAW’s MIDI
Editor window.

Sometimes the sound of copying and pasting a drum beat is the
desired effect but if you're going for realism, make sure you change the
velocities of certain drum voices accordingly. For example, hi-hats can sound
stagnant if the samples are triggered at the exact same velocity each time.

Here is the beat with velocity differences:

2. Add Ghost Notes

Ghost notes are quiet and fairly "unheard" as individual notes but can often
make up the true character of a drummer. Ghost notes are quiet hits, usually
hidden away, yet vital for encompassing character into your part. These are
generally placed on off beats and can be utilised to full effect by changing the velocity of a note to a lower level.

Here is the beat with an additional ghost note:

3. Randomize

Some DAWs keep this feature hidden away, but unlock it's potential and
you have a powerful tool at hand which can be used most effectively near the end of
programming. Once the beat is programmed to your taste, hit the Randomizing
button (sometimes called Humanizing—check your DAW manual)
at something around the mark of 10%.

The beat will be slightly out of time, but
this is how a real drummer would play. Even the tightest drummer can't physically qualitize themselves, so this adds feeling and character to your part in a way you can't "click in".

Here is the beat now it has been randomized:

4. Add Drummer-isms!

If you have a sample pad, or even a keyboard, it's worth spending time
learning how to play drum parts in, rather than clicking them into your MIDI editor.
Even taking one part at a time and recording drum part in layer upon layer will automatically add
velocities and feel to your music—exactly the realism you want to achieve!

Additionally, why not buy a cheap "learn to play the drums" book (there are plenty of websites, too) and learn a few of
the basic techniques. One of the most frequently employed "drummer-isms" is to add in a specific type of grace note—in drumming terms, a "flam". (A flam is a quiet ghosted note, almost immediately followed by an accented note).

Here is the beat with an added flam right at the end:

Recap

Here is the original programmed beat:

And here is the new, edited version, with added realism:

Conclusion

If you’re going for realism then, ultimately, nothing beats a real drummer in a real
studio. However you can achieve powerful and cost saving results with attention
to detail during the programming stages.

Getting into the mindset of a drummer and putting this into your programming can often yield pretty impressive results. Good luck!